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Creative Minds and Hands on Display in Children's Poster Contest

"Our world's water is in your hands". This advice comes from one of the students who created a poster in the 4th annual Children's Poster Contest, which was conducted by the Public Information Committee in conjunction with the Fall Conference.

The contest was open to all 5th grade students in Nebraska, with nearly 400 entries received from more than 30 schools. We displayed the top 100 posters for conference attendees to review and vote for their favorites. This year's theme, "Your Water - To Know It Is To Love It", was AWWA's national theme for Drinking Water Week in May.

The purpose of the contest is to get the younger generation thinking about water issues early and to have fun while learning about water, our most valuable resource. Some teachers had every student in their class participate, while others made it optional. While sorting through the submitted posters, it was obvious that some teachers had prepared their students by teaching about water-related issues, and had discussed water's importance in everyday life.

The top three poster artists received cash prizes of $100, $50, and $25. The first place prize went to a student at McCook Central Elementary who created a colorful poster depicting the water cycle. Second place went to a student at North American Martyrs School in Lincoln who built a pop-up poster showing surface water runoff. The poster receiving the third most votes was done by a Dudley Elementary student in Gothenburg whose poster had an actual water bottle cap incorporated into it. There were many great posters, so we also awarded an Honorable Mention to six of the posters, based on the voting results.

Here are some excerpts from the posters, not all of which were on display but still had an important message:

If you would like to get your own community schools involved with the 2017 poster contest, please contact Mary Poe for details.

Place Winners - 2016 Children's Poster Contest

1st place:  Sienna Dutton, McCook Central Elementary, McCook, NE

Poster contest entry

2nd place:  Dan Vo, North American Martyrs, Lincoln, NE

Poster contest entry

3rd place:  Hannah Devlin, Dudley Elementary - Gothenburg Public Schools, Gothenburg, NE

Poster contest entry

Honorable Mentions - 2016 Children's Poster Contest

Daisy Villatoro, Knickrehm Elementary, Grand Island, NE

Poster contest entry

Carly James, St. Pius/St. Leo, Omaha, NE

Poster contest entry

Brylie Vollman, Bennet Elementary, Bennet, NE

Poster contest entry

Sofia Perez, Knickrehm Elementary, Grand Island, NE

Poster contest entry

Mattie Kucera, North American Martyrs, Lincoln, NE

Poster contest entry

Payton Hemphill, Dudley Elementary - Gothenburg Public Schools, Gothenburg, NE

Poster contest entry